


Same People, Different Worlds

by eternitywrites



Series: Tumblr Writing Memes [4]
Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Boss/Employee Relationship, Clubbing, Drunk Sex, Drunken Flirting, First Meetings, Frottage, Grinding, M/M, One Night Stands, Original Character(s), Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-25
Updated: 2014-09-25
Packaged: 2018-02-18 16:51:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2355617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternitywrites/pseuds/eternitywrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some things don't seem to change all that much no matter what the universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Couple That Works Together....

**Author's Note:**

> I asked for more AU prompts and my good followers gave them to me! Still have a few more to go. Updates after the first three chapters will be sporadic. Prompts taken from [this fun list](http://toxixpumpkin.tumblr.com/post/93917672629/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-ill-write-a-short-fic)

**49\. Boss/Intern ~~AU~~ (More or less canon according to Noiz's SSS) - Rating: Gen and Up**

“Noiz?” Oliver is too busy shifting through all the messages in his Coil to keep an eye on his surroundings as he enters the hallway. “Did you get that email from Albrecht? He’s asking for tech help aga — ”

He stops mid-stride, finding himself looking into Aoba’s eyes instead of Noiz’s. He’s staring back at him over Noiz’s shoulder, face burning a bright red and held stiff in a classic deer-caught-in-headlights expression.

Oliver blinks. “Is something wrong?” he asks in Japanese, wondering if he’s just stumbled into something rather private.

“N-nothing!” Aoba steps away from Noiz faster than Oliver has ever seen him move. “We-we were just, um…”

“We ran into each other.” Noiz faces Oliver, too. In contrast from Aoba, he looks as calm as ever.

“Yes!” Aoba’s agreement sounds a touch too enthusiastic to Oliver’s ears. “A-and yes, the Albrecht email! I was looking for you — ” He points to Noiz. “ — for that reason.”

“Were you?” Noiz’s tone is a thoughtful drawl.

Oliver looks from Noiz to Aoba, his brow furrowed. What on Earth is going on between the two of them?

“I was.” There’s a note of steel in Aoba’s voice. “And now that you know about it I’m going to go fax…stuff. I’ll be in the back if you need me.”

It’s the way Aoba makes a hasty retreat that Oliver finds odd. He takes a second to straighten his jacket before marching off, his face turned away from Noiz the entire time.

“If you’ll excuse me, sir…” Aoba murmurs as they pass. The air around him shivers with tension. Oliver lets him go with a polite nod. He glances at Noiz and is quite surprised to see him smiling at Aoba’s retreating form. It fades into its usual flat line when Oliver goes up to him, however.

“What was that all about?” Oliver asks, switching to German in case Aoba is still with in earshot. He finds it hard to keep the incredulity out of his tone.

“Bad timing, I guess,” says Noiz with a sigh, but there’s a softness in his eyes Oliver’s never seen before. He’s staring down the hall where Aoba has long since disappeared from. Oliver finds himself tempted to wave a hand in front of Noiz’s face, and maybe outside of work he would have.

“And that’s supposed to mean…?”

Noiz’s eyes finally snap to him. He raises his eyebrows. “You don’t get it?”

“No! I wouldn’t have asked if I did.”

“…Don’t worry about it.”

But Oliver does. Quietly, he resolves to keep an eye on the two of them. He likes Aoba, likes his brother, and hates the idea of their friendship becoming strained due to professional incompatibility.

It takes him a little while to figure out that their odd chemistry isn’t exactly negative.

One day, he finishes all his morning tasks with ease and treats himself to an early lunch. He heads to the break room, sub sandwich in hand, and something out of the corner of his eye stops him in his tracks.

Between the window blinds leading into the break room he can see that it’s not empty. Noiz and Aoba are sitting at one of the tables, heads lowered toward each other and chairs pushed together as close as possible. Noiz is facing away from him, but he has a good enough view of Aoba’s expression. The gentleness in it is obvious from miles away.

It gives Oliver pause. Again, he feels intrusive. Sure, they are obviously friends, and from the bits of what Noiz was willing to divulge to him about his time in Japan Oliver gets the sense that something enormous happened between the two of them to make their bond about as tight as it can get. But this scene before him is just really…

Intimate.

Oliver can feel his face get a touch hot. Luckily, the door to the break room is wide open. He begins to hum the first song that pops into his head as loud as he can. By the time he enters it they’re sitting a respectable distance apart. Noiz is looking at his Coil and Aoba is flicking through the channels on the television hanging on the wall.

“May I sit with you guys?”

“Sure!” Aoba gestures to the chair in front of them with a smile. Noiz glances up and shrugs at him.

And that’s the end of that. At least until the week after next.

Oliver is heading down the hallway to the copy machine when he catches the sound of a loud smack followed by a sharp, choked yell. Then there’s Japanese spoken so fast Oliver can barely follow it.

“Do that again and I’ll break all of your fingers, brat!”

“But the last time I did that you giggled.” Noiz’s voice, sounding very amused.

“Because the last time you did that you were subtle about it!” Oliver can practically hear how done Aoba is with Noiz. “Also, that hurt. Jerk.”

“Sorry. I’ll remember to rub just the way you like it next time.”

Oliver’s eyes widen.

“But I wouldn’t mind it if you broke my fingers,” Noiz continues. “Then you’ll have to feed me — ”

Oliver spins on his heel and strides away. The copies he wants to make aren’t a high priority item, anyway. They can wait.

Maybe these strange moments would have bothered Oliver more, but he catches them working far more than anything else and he likes what he sees. Aoba is quick and efficient, easily able to keep up with Noiz’s incredible pace. And he’s pleased that they’re both adjusting well to the company, getting along with coworkers and the other managers alike in their different ways. Only his parents’ reactions to them have been negative, but they’ve been a storm of negativity ever since Noiz first introduced Aoba to the family. Oliver has long since put their opinion out of his mind. He’s been doing that more and more often, lately.

So, while Oliver still endeavors to look out for them, he feels more relaxed about it. He even starts to think he was initially too paranoid. There’s most likely nothing out of the ordinary going on. They’re simply really close and comfortable with each other and like to goof of from time to time when they think no one’s around. An inkling of a thought that calling them "friends" might not quite cut it sits in the corner of his mind, but he certainly isn't going to bring it up with them. It's their personal business, and he's not going to stick his nose in it unless they confide to him about it, first.

One evening he heads to Noiz’s office to discuss some paperwork with him. Well, more like ask for help on it. It’s about online security, a subject that has never been Oliver’s forte. He doesn’t call out to Noiz before gripping the door knob, head preoccupied with attempting to understand the technical jargon on the page. And it’s a good thing, too. He glances up and realizes the door is cracked open. He can see Aoba standing next to Noiz, pointing at something on one of Noiz’s many Allmate monitors. Then they look at each other for a long moment before Aoba leans down and plants his lips right on his brother’s.

Oliver freezes. He swears his heart even stops. Seconds drip by like thick syrup and they’re still kissing. It’s maybe a minute or more before they pull away. A bright, wide grin spreads across Aoba’s face. Noiz isn’t smiling back, but he’s gazing up at Aoba as if he has eyes for no one else.

And Oliver is walking backwards around the corner he came from as quietly as he can. Those piles of little moments he has caught between them over the months are replaying in his head. Really, all it is is just confirmation of what he's been suspecting for quite some time at this point, but the only thing he can think is that he probably should have caught on a lot sooner. It all seems so obvious in retrospect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just imagine i edited this to replace "oliver" w/ "theo", thank you.


	2. Club Magic

**5\. One Night Stand and ~~Falling Pregnant~~ Awkward Morning After AU - Rating: Explicit**

_This place sucks._

Noiz sipped his drink, watching the great mass of sweaty bodies dancing to the thrashing beat of the music blaring out of all corners of the club from the relative safety of the bar. He had no idea what he had ordered, but it tasted sickly sweet and certainly didn’t help his predicament any. One hour. That was the stipulation his friends had forced him to agree to when they dragged him here under the collective opinion that he “needed to get out more”. Try the club scene for at least an hour before blowing it off. Why an hour? All he had needed was the time it had taken him to cross the threshold into the building for him to swear off clubs for the rest of his life. Now he was stuck here for another forty-five minutes of flashing lights and obnoxious pop songs played at an even more obnoxious volume.

He wanted to go home.

A few more seconds of his entrapment trickled by in slow motion as he took a another swig of his drink. He _should_ just go home. So what if his asshole friends grilled him for leaving early? So what if he had shit all to do in his apartment except his usual screwing around on the internet? At least it was comfortable in there.

He wouldn’t have been surprised if people across the room heard his weary sigh.

His eyes scanned the floor for a brief moment as he lifted his glass to his lips again. The song changed at the same time, slowing down to a thick, hypnotic pulse. That was when he saw him.

It was by pure luck, really. A gap had appeared in the crowd at just the right moment, in the crossroad of Noiz looking in that particular direction and the flash of bright light that illuminated striking blue hair just long enough for him to hold his line of sight until the stranger turned and met his stare.

That simple connection squeezed the air out of his lungs. Not entirely, but enough to wipe his mind blank with the sudden force of his reaction to the softly-sculpted face looking back at him. The stranger’s surprise was evident in his widened eyes despite his distance from Noiz, as though he hadn’t expected anyone to notice him the way Noiz did.

And then he smiled. Keeping their gazes locked, the stranger turned around just enough to give Noiz a better view of his hips, which rolled with a lot of vigor and an impressive amount of skill in time with the song. His ponytail swung with him, treating Noiz to glimpses of a long, slender neck.

Noiz’s throat went tight.

This place just became exponentially more bearable to be in.

He downed the rest of his drink without tasting it and set it on the table top before sliding out of his chair. Ignoring the bartender’s muttered “About time…” he suspected was aimed at him, Noiz strode through the club until he was pressed close to the enticing, blue-haired dancer. His hands found their way to the other’s hips without a moment’s hesitation. Likewise, the stranger was quick to loop his arms over Noiz’s shoulders. Noiz felt him laugh as he leaned in until his lips were ghosting over his cheek.

"Hi," said the stranger. The greeting tickled Noiz’s ear.

"Yo."

"Know how to dance?"

Noiz shook his head. “Not really.” He didn’t care, though. He was too busy stroking his fingers along the thin swath of exposed skin peeking out under the hem of the stranger’s shirt. God, he _radiated_ heat.

"Thought as much." The stranger strengthened his grip until they were wound even tighter together. Noiz couldn’t say he disliked it. "You don’t seem the type. That’s okay, just follow my lead."

"Sure thing." Noiz could feel the corners of his lips twitching up. "Take care of me, alright?"

"You got it."

Noiz soon found it all too easy to forget everything. To forget that they were often jostled and pushed around by the never-ending sea of patrons they were swamped in, that the strobe lights were too harsh and the racket of music too irritating. All his focus was devoted to feeling as much as the stranger as he could with his body, grinding against him until he was struggling for breath and had sweat beading down his temple. Noiz couldn’t take his eyes off the face before him. The stranger was gorgeous, he really was, even more so when he would break into another smile or laugh and whisper corrections to his dancing. Sometimes he would gasp and shudder when Noiz moved just right against him, and that had Noiz worrying at his bottom lip with his teeth.

He wanted more.

"Whoa!"

"Sorry," Noiz muttered, easing off of him a little. He had shoved them into a wall, away from the main crowd. Dizzy with impatience, he dipped down and hooked an arm around the back of the stranger’s knee, lifting his leg up. Noiz was rather delighted to find that his thigh was firm and thick. He wanted to see how it looked nude. "Hey, wrap your leg around my waist…"

"I — _ah!”_

Noiz braced his free arm against the wall and began to thrust hard and fast into the stranger’s crotch, pleasure short-circuiting every system in his body. In the very back of his mind he wondered how long it had taken them to get to this point. One song? Five? Maybe a whole hour had already passed them by in the blink of an eye. It wouldn’t have surprised him.

"H-hey…" The stranger’s eyes were screwed shut, head turned away. His nails were digging into Noiz’s shoulder blades as his hips bucked eagerly into his. It felt so good. "At least…your name?"

"Noiz." He nudged his forehead against the stranger’s, urging him to look back at him.

"I…I’m Aoba."

Aoba…Noiz liked the sound of his name. Something that would feel soft in his mouth when he said it out loud, but he found himself too distracted to do so. Aoba was staring at him now, and up close Noiz realized his eyes were a pretty shade of hazel.

"Not here," he pleaded, his voice strained.

Noiz blew out a heavy breath, slowing but unable to stop himself completely. “But somewhere else?”

There was a very long stretch of silence. Noiz licked his lips, muscles tight in anticipation, hand sliding up and down Aoba’s thigh.

"…How close is your place?" Aoba asked at last.

"Not even five minutes away."

Stepping away from him felt akin to having bits of his flesh seared off, but Noiz knew what was about to happen was going to be well worth the sudden pause. He took Aoba by the hand and led him toward the nearest exit. Only when they were out in the parking lot did he stop and look back.

The buzz of the street lamps and cool night air went a long way in clearing some of the fog in Noiz’s head, so he figured it was probably a dangerous sign that he still found Aoba captivating away from the strange, dark power of the club, the music nothing more than an indistinct echo in the distance. And the steady light above them brought out even more details he liked, such as the blotchy redness of his skin that blossomed from his hairline and disappeared down the neck of his shirt and the sheen of perspiration at the curve of his throat.

Noiz couldn’t wait to get his mouth all over him.

"Changed your mind?" asked Aoba after a moment, tone low and uncertain. "It’s…it’s fine if you did. I think I can catch a bus back home if you don’t want me with you."

"That’s not it." Noiz had to swallow before he could get any words out. "Do _you_ still want to do this?”

"Ah…" Aoba blinked, free hand tucking a loose strand of hair behind his ear. It took him some time, but then: "Yeah. Yeah, I do." His eyes flicked up and down Noiz’s body, and he turned even redder. "Definitely."

Aoba’s hand tightened around his. Noiz pulled him close and kissed him, swallowing a gasp that melted into a quiet moan. It was a heated mesh of wet tongues, soft lips, and the bitter taste of alcohol shared between them. A tease of everything Noiz had ever wanted to feel in a few slow, sloppy seconds.

"Come on," said Noiz, the break of the kiss so loud Aoba pressed a hand to his mouth and looked away in obvious embarrassment. Noiz had to grin at that. Cute. "Let’s go."

Aoba glanced at him and nodded, and Noiz wasted no more time in guiding him to his car.

 

* * *

 

The fact that they managed to make it safely through the door to Noiz’s apartment was somewhat shocking, considering they weren’t even halfway down the hall before they were all over each other again, hands underneath shirts and pulling at belts and mouths anywhere and everywhere they could reach. The fact that they were able to get their shoes and some of their clothes out of the way once inside was more or less a miracle.

Noiz sat shirtless against the wall of the entryway, pants shoved down his hips just enough to expose his cock, hard and leaking since who knew how long ago. Aoba was in an opposite state of dress. He was still in his shirt, twisted and ruched up though it was, having abandoned it so that he could take off his bottoms. They hung off of one of his ankles, his belt buckle scraping against the floor as he sat on Noiz’s lap.

"What _is_ that?” he choked out, trembling when their cocks slid against each other.

"Those? My piercings." Noiz ran his tongue in a messy path along Aoba’s slick throat between shaky gasps for air. They had barely started and he was already close to losing his mind. He pressed his trembling fingers into Aoba’s waist.

"Really?"

"Mm-hm," he hummed, sucking soft skin into his mouth and nipping at it. Aoba jolted against him with a whimper. "You should try them. You might like them."

Aoba’s tongue darted out, dampening his lips. Then he seemed to throw his entire weight into stroking his cock slowly up and down Noiz’s.

Noiz pushed his shoulders into the wall, head thrown up and jaw clenched tight. His insides twisted in white hot agony and every piece of him screamed for more of it, for more of what Aoba did to him.

"O-oh, _fuck…_ " Aoba sounded almost teary in his desperation. He was so close. Noiz could feel his shuddering breaths against his bare chest.

"Good, right?" Noiz kissed him deep, taking his time in stroking the inside of his mouth with his tongue. "You should move your hips the way you did while we were dancing. That was so sexy."

"Th-that’s a little different!"

"How so?" asked Noiz, laughing. "Or do you need some help? Here…"

Noiz shifted Aoba by his waist as he moved his own hips into him to the vague memories he had of the club music. Aoba’s answering moans were loud in the quiet darkness of the apartment, and they only encouraged Noiz to move them faster as his body burned from the inside out.

"I’m — I’m…!"

"I know." He dropped his head onto Aoba’s shoulder, one of his hands curling into Aoba’s shirt. Precum made their skin glide wetly together. "I’m almost there, too. Just a little more, Aoba. Don’t hold back."

He stuck a finger in his mouth, swirled his tongue around it, and slid it under Aoba’s shirt, circling the tip around one of his nipples. The sound it wrenched from Aoba sent a shiver through Noiz. He groaned and bounced fiercer and more erratic up into Aoba’s oozing cock, wishing they had had the time to get into his room where the lube was so that he could fuck this beautiful man in his lap properly and —

"Noi—a-aah!… _Noiz!”_

Noiz felt semen splatter his stomach, Aoba’s cock twitch against his as his limbs seized up with his orgasm, the shout of his name echo in his head, and could no longer hold on. He cried out as the heat and pressure burst from inside him, sharp and ragged, crushing Aoba to him as he came, staining Aoba’s shirt and his own bare skin with more sticky fluid.

They sat in the hall for a long while after, panting and gasping as their bodies went lax, exchanging quick little kisses over and over again before Aoba finally pulled back and sighed.

"I’m…I’m _exhausted.”_

"Same here." Noiz cracked an eye open. "You trying to head back to your house tonight?"

Aoba shook his head. “Even if I wanted to I don’t think I can. I can barely move.”

"Even if you wanted to?" Noiz repeated, a lazy smile curving his mouth. He rubbed his hand against Aoba’s thigh. It really did look great naked. "So you’d rather stay with me?"

"Don’t look at me like that…" Aoba’s face flushed at once. He turned his head away, sweaty hair flipping off his shoulder.

Noiz gave a tired snort of laughter. He was beginning to think this guy was kind of ridiculous…in the best way possible. Gathering the last of his energy, he scooped Aoba into his arms and carried him out of the entryway.

"Hey, you little — ! Where are you taking me?!"

"My room. I’ll wipe us off in there."

"I…I wouldn’t mind just crashing on your cou — "

"The bed’s big enough for another person."

"Oh."

That seemed to quiet him down. He shifted in Noiz’s hold, arm slung limp over his shoulders, eyes darting everywhere but up at him. Noiz didn’t mind, just as he certainly didn’t mind sharing his bed with him.

With a contented little hum, he supposed there truly was some merit to getting out more often.

 

* * *

 

Aoba stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror in despair.

The was no getting around it. He was the very definition of a hot mess.

His shirt was wrinkled to hell and back and…not the cleanest it could have been. He was tempted to take it off, but then what? He only had his underwear on. His jeans might have fallen off somewhere in the living room last night and he wasn’t about to go check with the way he looked. The last thing he needed was run headlong into the guy he didn’t know in his current state of disarray.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He knew his name was Noiz, and that he could do wicked, skillful things with his hands and his mouth and his…

Aoba shook his head, which did nothing but compound the throbbing in the back of his skull and throw his hair into even deeper chaos. He yanked the tie out of his hair with a curse and did his best to finger-comb it back into some semblance of neatness. He was tempted to go through a round of sobriety vows for the umpteenth time in his life, but his thoughts were eager to drift back to his gracious host.

Last night had been…something else.

Flirting with guys at clubs he hadn’t wanted to go to in the first damn place was definitely not part of his usual routine, but the way Noiz had looked at him with that intense, zeroed-in interest had emptied his head of anything resembling sensibility and reservation. That, coupled with a few drinks and the way the music had vibrated in his very bones had created a dangerous concoction inside of him. It had made him want Noiz closer, made him curious to see if he could break that unreadable expression of his if he moved his body in the right ways.

And, oh, boy had he succeeded. Far more than even his tipsy, confident self had anticipated. It had been a rush to see Noiz’s face melt from impassivity to barely contained wildness as they ground into each other. A rush Aoba was still recovering from. But now? When the sun was up and the onset of a hangover had brought his senses back to him? He had no idea how he was going to deal with seeing Noiz again. A small part of him almost wanted to leave the apartment undetected, though he was sure Noiz was still somewhere inside of it. Maybe he could leave him a note…

Giving his hair up for lost, Aoba tied it back up and moved on to the nasty sliminess of his mouth. There was no way he was going to use the single toothbrush sitting in the cup by the faucet, so he settled for twisting open the bottle of mouthwash and tipping some past his lips. It would have to do. He spat it out, carefully rinsed out the sink, and was just about to summon his courage to go on a hunt for his pants when —

"Hey."

Aoba flinched and spun around. There was Noiz, leaning against the bathroom door frame, a hand jammed into his pockets, strawberry blond hair sticking up every which way and his gaze cool in its assessment of him. Like they had simply passed each other on the street rather than rocking each other’s worlds last night.

"Uh, good morning!" Aoba tried to pat down his bangs, sorely wishing he had discarded his shirt after all. Maybe it would have saved him some embarrassment if he had flipped it backwards or something.

"Looking for these?"

Noiz waved Aoba’s jeans in the air and tossed them to him.

"Thanks." Aoba caught them with a grimace, but he didn’t put them on. Noiz was distracting him just by standing there. Even in the rational light of day there was no getting around how handsome Aoba thought he was. That wiry build, strong nose, and those sharp, too-clever green eyes…even the odd sullenness of his resting face was more cute than off-putting. And it hid a fantastic smile underneath. Aoba remembered. Even though it had been dark he could recall it with ease. And he kind of wanted to see it again.

He was in deep trouble, wasn’t he?

Unable to stand the on-going silence between them, Aoba blurted out the first thing that came to his frazzled mind.

"You know, I—I’m not usually not nearly as horny as I was last night." Shit.

Noiz raised his eyebrows. “Are you trying to put me off?”

"Well, no, but…" He trailed off, making a vague, meaningless hand gesture.

Noiz’s gaze skittered away from him. “Do you regret last night?”

"No! No, of course not! Last night was…pretty good."

"Pretty good?" He actually scoffed. Softly, but it dug into Aoba all the same. "You don’t sound very enthusiastic."

Aoba gnashed his teeth. "It was amazing." He bit out, throwing his arms up in the air before letting them flop back down in defeat. "Fantastic. Didn’t think I was going to have a good time, but now I have to thank a couple of friends of mine for bothering me into going with them because I experienced the best night I’ve had in awhile. Because I saw you. There. Is that what you wanted me to say?"

"Is that the truth?"

"Yes!"

Ah, there was his smile. “It was an amazing night for me, too. And I hate clubs.”

Aoba narrowed his eyes at him. “Were you messing with me just now?”

Noiz laughed. It was an odd laugh. Quiet, rough around the edges as though he wasn’t quite used to making such a sound. It made Aoba’s heart do a tiny, wobbly flip in his chest.

"Yeah, I was. You’re not hard to read. But I wanted to hear it, too." He strolled into the bathroom, closing the gap between them until they were almost chest-to-chest. "Need a shower, Aoba?"

"That’d be great, actually!" Standing so close to this guy really jumbled him up, but he straightened his spine and stood his ground. He could tell Noiz was the younger out of the two of them. There was no way he would allow some punk kid to always get the upper hand. So he put on his blandest smile -- the one he often wielded behind the cash register at work -- and pretended his pulse wasn't thrumming excitedly in his veins. "I promise I’ll only be a few minutes, and I’ll clean up after I’m done."

"Not by yourself. With me."

"Eh?" Aoba glanced from the tub to him, too stunned to come up with a decent retort.

"It’d be more efficient to go in at the same time."

"Because I’m sure efficiency is what you’re concerned about here,” Aoba mumbled, more to himself than to him. He felt his face heat up again. Noiz got him and they both knew it.

"Well?" Noiz was very near. Their noses were almost touching.

It seemed a waste to allow such a small gap exist between them.

"Ah…"

Aoba sighed into Noiz’s mouth, taking in that soft sound of surprise Noiz had made as they kissed. It was careful, more chaste than the ones they had given each other last night, but very sweet in its own way. And minty. There was a lingering taste of the mouthwash Aoba had just used on Noiz’s lips.

“Huh.” Noiz gave him another gentle peck, a promise of more where it came from. “Good answer.”

“I figured you’d like that.” Aoba gave him a wider, genuine smile, one Noiz returned. He liked his answer, too. It didn’t feel like the wrong one, that much he knew for sure.


	3. Wander No More

**23\. Meeting on a train ride AU - Rating: Gen and Up**

Noiz stared out the window, somewhat in awe at the sight outside of it.

The ocean. He had seen it countless times before, but always far below him as yet another plane flew him farther away from Germany. Never this close and glittering under the evening sun like waves of molten gold stretching into the horizon. There were probably endless ways to describe such a scene, but only a single simple word came to Noiz’s mind. It slipped past his lips in a soft, almost accidental breath.

“Pretty…”

A round of quiet laughter reached his ears, shocking him out of his reverie.

“Isn’t it? I always thought it looked the best during autumn.”

Noiz glanced warily at the person sitting in the seat before him. When he had first sat down it had seemed like the other guy was knocked out for good, huddled in the very corner of his seat under a heavy coat and scarf, a thick pair of headphones shutting him away from the rest of the world. Noiz wouldn’t have been surprised if he had missed his stop a long time ago. Now he was looking straight at him as he took off his headphones and pushed his scarf down. Noiz noted the slenderness of his fingers, the sleepy but open friendliness of his light eyes.

Speaking of pretty things…well, maybe “pretty” wasn’t the right word for him. It didn’t sound strong enough to Noiz.

He looked out the window again.

“But it’s really fun in the summer, too.” If the guy was perturbed by Noiz’s silence he didn’t sound like it. “Even if it does get crowded. I try and go at least once every season.”

When was the last time Noiz had talked to someone that wasn’t about getting him from one terminal to the next? He bit his lip before issuing a reply, still not sure if he should look back at him.

“I’ve…never been to the beach before.”

“Really? Aw, you should go if you can. It’s a great experience.”

Noiz’s gaze shifted back to him at last. He was smiling a little.

“It sounds like it’d be too hot in the summer,” Noiz muttered.

“That’s what shaved ice is for!”

“Shaved ice?”

Aoba’s brow furrowed. “You don’t know what that is?”

Noiz shook his head. All it once, it hit him that he wasn’t very familiar with long conversations that weren’t meaningless lectures from his parents.

“Well, it’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s the best thing to eat when it’s hot.”

Now Noiz was even more confused. “But it’s only ice. People just go around eating cupfuls of ice during the summer? That’s weird.”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Aoba laughed again. It had a nice ring to it. “There’s flavoring that goes in it. Like green apple or strawberry.”

Noiz considered the idea. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

A brief silence fell over them. The other guy’s gaze, no longer unfocused with sleep, made Noiz feel off-center and fidgety.

“What?” he asked. Even to his own ears he sounded sullen.

“Are you from around here at all?”

“No. I came here from Germany a little while ago.”

“Wow, all the way from Europe?” For some reason he looked impressed. Maybe he didn’t travel all that much. “Visiting friends?”

Noiz shook his head again. “I don’t really…I’ve never been here before. I’m just looking for a place to settle down. Needed to get away from my family for awhile.”

“I see.” His smile faded a touch. “Are you headed to Platinum Jail?”

“That’s the city behind the big walls, right? I’ve heard of it.”

Aoba nodded. “It’s kind of hard to get in, but the districts inside are super fancy. The apartments there are nice if you have the money for it.”

Noiz assumed that he did. Collecting money was one of the things he excelled at, but at the same time… “Anywhere is fine for me. Where do you live?”

The question came out before Noiz could reconsider it.

“I’m from the Old District. It has its…charms.”

The way he said that made Noiz raise his eyebrows. “Rough place?”

He sighed. “It can be, but it is nice, I swear. And it’s home, you know?”

Noiz didn’t know. But rough places didn’t scare him. “Is the food any good?”

“I know a lot of great restaurants around where I live.”

“That’ll do,” said Noiz. “I guess I’ll look around there when I get off."

“Wait, really?” The incredulity in his voice was obvious. “You can’t just base where you want to live on how good the food is in the area!”

“Why not?”

“Uh…”

Noiz sat back and waited for a proper explanation.

“Well, you gotta consider stuff like…location and, um, costs? Yeah, definitely costs. Then there’s…there’s — ”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, do you?”

“Hey! I’m trying to help you out!” Now he was peeved. Noiz wondered if he had ever met someone who was this easy to read.

“What do you get out of doing that?” he asked. “We don’t even know each other’s names.”

“What?” His expression melted from annoyance to confusion. “You said you were looking for a place to settle down, right? And I know my way around here, so why wouldn’t I lend a hand?”

Noiz glanced away from him. “That doesn’t answer my question at all.”

“I don’t get a damn thing out of it,” he said, tone clipped. “I’m just doing what I feel like doing. I’m Seragaki Aoba.”

“Noiz.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Noiz-san.”

Noiz couldn’t decide if he liked the way that had sounded. It irritated him, but not in a bad way. It was a hard sensation to pinpoint. So he said the first thing that came to mind.

“Shut up.”

It earned him another laugh from Aoba. The sound pulled his sight back to him.

“Tell you what, Noiz,” he said stretching his arms up to the ceiling for a moment. “I actually expected to be home a lot later than this. I have plenty of time to show you around the place when we get off, if you’d like.”

Noiz didn’t answer him immediately. He had maps of both the Old District and Platinum Jail, several possible hotels to stay at, Italian restaurants and pizza joints marked for later usage. It’d be all too easy to handle everything by himself as he had always done.

On the other hand, a change of pace wasn’t bad every now and then. Not when it came from someone with an honest face and a wide smile, with strange eyes and even stranger hair who, as far as Noiz could tell (hoped, if he was truthful to himself), really was reaching out to him just because he could.

And the word for Seragaki Aoba, stronger and more fitting than “pretty”, suddenly came to Noiz’s mind. He thought it over with care before tucking it into the back of his head for later consideration. It was early days, yet.

But he had a feeling he wasn’t wrong about it.

“Well?”

For the first time in what felt like a long while, Noiz smiled. Just a bit.

“Whatever,” he said with a shrug. “If that’s what you feel like doing, I don’t have a problem with it. How long until our stop?”

“About thirty more minutes, I think.”

Noiz eyed his wrist. “Got any games on that clunky old Coil of yours?”

 _“Clunky?”_ Just as Noiz suspected, his judgment of his tech dug right into Aoba. He actually looked insulted. “The correct term for this, brat, would be _retro._ Get it right and respect your elders better. Also, I happen to have plenty of games on here.”

“But are you any good at them?”

“You have no idea.”

Noiz sank a little more sharpness in his smile as he pulled up screens on his own Coil. “If that’s the case, then show me what you got.”

“Gladly.”

Before he knew it, Aoba was no longer sitting in front of him but right beside him as Noiz hooked their Coils together. The wireless connection on the train was decent and the cord was long enough to stretch between the seats, so all-in-all it had been a complete waste of energy on Aoba’s part to move closer to him. Noiz decided not to bring it up. He found that he didn’t mind his nearness that much, anyway. If truth be told, the idea of experiencing it sometime again in the future wasn’t all that unpleasant to him, either.

“Hey, Noiz…”

“Yeah?” Noiz looked up from the Rhyme log-in screen. The smile Aoba wore now was different from his previous ones. It made something tighten in Noiz’s chest.

“Welcome to Midorijima.”

Noiz turned his attention back to their Coils. Before this evening, he hadn't cared at all about the various places he had traveled to. Now, however, that bored, restless itch that had plagued him throughout his journey was beginning to fade at last.

Maybe he really could settle down here for awhile.

Maybe having someone else around to help him with that after years of solitude wouldn’t be so bad.

He typed in his username and password as though it required all his concentration.

“Thanks.”

"You're welcome!"

And maybe in time, the simple affirmation of gratitude he had mumbled would grow deeper. Deeper and more intricate and into something he'd want nothing more than to show to Seragaki Aoba.


End file.
